About

The Seeker's Lenormand Deck

$22,125

pledged of $3,900 goal

519

backers

I'm Andy Swartz, a freelance artist and illustrator. My style of artwork is typified by dream-like, faintly creepy and macabre fantasy wildlife. I am a mostly self-taught artist, and I'm inspired by cartoons, video games, scientific illustration, and folklore and myths. I sell my work online and in a handful of galleries and shops, and I also travel around the US doing art fairs and festivals. You can view more of my work at skullgarden.net.

Over the past three years I've been working on a trilogy of decks exploring a similar theme and aesthetic, including The Wooden Tarot, The Earthbound Oracle, and now The Seeker's Lenormand.

A Lenormand deck, named for the famous French cartomancer Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand, contains 36 individual cards, somewhat similar to the major arcana of a traditional tarot deck. Each card has its own unique meaning, and I find that the cards are much more grounded and relevant to everyday life than other decks.

Much like the imagery used in The Wooden Tarot and Earthbound Oracle, I focused on simple objects and themes with multi-purpose symbolism and a slightly surreal and macabre twist. There are characters and symbolism that trail through all three decks; for example, the brown wood mouse who makes the Fool's Journey through the major arcana of The Wooden Tarot can be seen again as The Rider (which also features the snail from The Chariot) in The Seeker's Lenormand.

Just like the previous two decks, the cards are mixed media paintings on 6x8" birch wood panels.

This deck will contain 36 illustrated cards printed at 2.5 x 3.5" (63x88mm), packaged in a custom, full color tuck box. The Seeker's Lenormand deck will be an open edition deck, with the first 500 decks printed with the funds raised from this Kickstarter project.

As you can see, the vast majority of the funds are for printing the deck, with shipping closely coming in second. The rest of the expenses are for shipping supplies, and for Kickstarter's mandatory fees.

Kickstarter is an amazingly powerful tool that puts the power of creative projects back into the hands of creators and their backers. As the creator of five previous successful projects, I know that crowdfunding is the single best way to fund the creation of indie decks without the influence of outside sources. It's just you, me, and the deck. It would be impossible for me to foot the bill for creating a deck by myself, which is why I use Kickstarter as a platform for raising the funds while giving backers a discount on the final product for helping me complete it.

Kickstarter is an all or nothing funding platform for potential projects. Meaning if I do not reach my $3,900 funding goal, then the project does not come to fruition and no money is lost from the backers. If I do reach my goal, then the project proceeds and is completed by me, and in a few months you will have your newly minted deck, along with my eternal admiration and gratitude.

Unlike the Kickstarter campaigns for the previous two decks, I've gone ahead and finished the art for The Seeker's Lenormand so that I can get the decks into your claws by the holidays! I'll be releasing all of the art for the cards as the campaign continues, but here are some finished mock ups for cards for right now.

Check out the updates for more art!

I've come up with some cool stretch goals for this project if we surpass our funding goal before Halloween:

If we reach $5000 in funding before the campaign ends, I'll include wooden yes/no flip coins to every reward! These were a big hit with The Earthbound Oracle Kickstarter campaign. I still use mine almost daily.

If we reach $10,000 in funding, then I'll include mini 1.75 x 2.5" travel decks with every reward that includes a copy of The Seeker's Lenormand! This mini deck will only be available to Kickstarter backers.

so smol.

If we reach $15,000 before Halloween, then I'll add a 22x22" gold ink on black cotton screen printed spread cloths to every pledge for a copy of The Seeker's Lenormand. These cloths are similar to the tarot cloths I made for The Wooden Tarot, and is also based on The Wheel of Fortune card. If you'd like extra cloths, you can add $5 to your pledge by adjusting your pledge amount above.

printed area 18x18"

$1: Thanks for your contribution!

$20: One copy of The Seeker's Lenormand deck.

$35: One copy of The Seeker's Lenormand, and one copy of The Earthbound Oracle.

$50: One copy of The Seeker's Lenormand, and one copy of The Wooden Tarot.

$65: One copy of The Seeker's Lenormand, one copy The Earthbound Oracle, and one copy of The Wooden Tarot. The complete trilogy of decks.

$100: One copy of The Seeker's Lenormand, and one ORIGINAL PAINTING used in the making of the deck. Each painting is 6x8", mixed media on birch, ready to hang. Once the campaign is over, I'll send a message to backers asking for their top five choices, from which I'll pick one to send. I've done this for past Kickstarters and almost everyone gets either their first or second choice!

The email you have listed on Kickstarter MUST be a valid email that you check frequently. The longer it takes you to respond to your survey once funding has ended, the longer it takes for you to receive your reward. I will copy and paste your address exactly as you write it in your survey, so your address must be correctly spelled and laid out. If your rewards are returned to me due to a bad address, I will contact you and you must repay for shipping. If your address changes after you have filled out your survey but before your rewards have shipped, please update your address in your backer survey, and send me a message!

Please make sure that your credit card information is up to date. If it is not up to date, then your pledge will be declined once funding has ended and you will be dropped as a backer. (Though if this happens accidentally, you can contact me and I can provide alternate payment options)

Risks and challenges

I'm pretty confident in my ability to run and fulfill a successful Kickstarter. The toughest bit (finishing all of the art on time) is already done, and now I just need the funds to get the deck printed and shipped out. Now our toughest challenge is delivery by the deadline, which should be no problem.